THIRTEEN! LON IS THIRTEEN!

Lon's actual birthday fell on Saturday.  We decided to go to see the Mighty 8th Airforce Museum. It is located in Pooler, Georgia right off the I-95. We pass it every time we go south, and never get the chance to stop. This time, this was our destination!

Candles in the monkey bread for breakfast!

Where the Mighty 8th was based while in England.

Checking out the ball turret on the B-17. This B-17 never saw combat, it was built right at the end of the war. It went to a  high school in North Dakota, then to Canada to help map parts of Canada, it fought forest fires in the Western US, before coming to the museum in Pooler to be restored to all it's glory.

All the different planes.

For a small-ish museum they have a LOT of information and exhibits. They are very well done and a lot of them are interactive

The tail gunner section that has been restored. The man in the back was on his knees the entire flight

One of the costliest bombing runs of the war, over oil refineries in  Nazi controlled Romania. They supplied most of the oil and gas to the Nazis.

You could do some target practice as if you were an actual side gunner. Lon scored 13, Dad scored 9, Mom scored 11.  Not as easy as it looked watching.

Looking at some more of the exhibits

B-17

I know my great Uncle was in the 8th Air force but I need to pull up my research to find out where he fits in this museum.  I am pretty sure he was in the 448th bomb group, 715 squadron. He was in a B-24.  I will update more when I pull up the research.

Across the street there was a little Italian restaurant.  The food was good!

I told Mark to put his phone down for a photo!

Lon's dessert. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream wrapped in a chocolate shell.   Yummy!

On our way home, up the back roads, we passed a sign that said scenic drive, Savannah Wildlife Refuge.   It was gorgeous!  It was worth the four mile detour.    It is on the South Carolina side of the river.

There were a couple places to get out and look, they had pull outs. Most other places it was discouraged getting out of the car

I love how this photo turned out

The reason why some places it was discouraged getting out of the car.

This photo, along with most of the others, was taken out of the car window.

That is one majestic bird.

I am going to try to play with this photo to see if I can make the bird stand out more.

There were four rice plantations along this road, and some of the trunks are still there to control the water.

Big  One

Two more

We could hear them making noise! 

There were pockets of live oak trees. We think this is probably where the plantations houses were located.

This cistern is all that remains of the plantation house.  There is a photo blind at the end of the brick walk way

The view from the photo blind

This rice trunk is showing it's age!

Rosy Spoonbills. They look like flamingos from a distance

 The one who stayed for a close up

It was a wonderful little drive. They also had radio stops.  Tune your radio to 1610 am and they stops did not have a long range, so only when you were within a couple car lengths could you hear that stop.

The sky is starting to look threatening but we did  not get rained on

 That was the last picture of the drive.

After we got back on the road, we saw a sign for the visitor's center,  we went and checked it out!

Pointing out the baby gator

Checking out the gator

We all enjoyed the day.

Our last stop was the Carolina Cider Company on highway 17.   Peach cider !

MIni Golf for 13

Friday was Lon's last day as a 12 year old.  Since there was no party this year, most everyone was out of town, we took Autzen up to Myrtle Beach to celebrate.

Going over the Ravenel Bridge is always cool. 

Lon wanted to go to May Day Mini Golf.  He said it was a little north of Myrtle Beach.  Well, it turns out it was at the north end of North Myrtle Beach. 
Since Lon had his birthday shirt on, his golf game was free. That was very nice

Boys being goofy


Autzen won the golf game, Lon came in second.

Studying the menu at Friendlys.  Lon also got his dessert free.  Which was very nice.

After lunch we stopped at the Disney Store and Lon spent the last of his Birthday money on a Porg. He wanted one of those for months. 

Mark had dinner waiting for us, fried chicken, corn and biscuits. Then it was cake time!

We stopped at Dairy Queen to pick up Lon's cake, before getting home.  I did not have time to make one this year. Lon saw the receipt and the girl at the counter gave me a 10% senior discount.  The boys thought that was a hoot and a half!  Lon said he was not going to tell Dad, but that went out the window when they got home. Autzen could not WAIT to blab!  Mark will not let me live that one down.

Making a wish. 

I think they boys had fun today.